Despite the farcical attempts at pro-Britain propaganda, the country faces an existential crisis masked by superficial prosperity and symbolised by the transformation of high streets into facades.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in my family and social circles that can see the slide of our once impressive nation into oblivion and worst of all obscurity. We live in a society ruled by a political class who (for the most part) hold its voters with mind bending contempt. Those who hold those unfortunate things called opinions are vilified and those who hold opinions that go against the accepted, politically correct, government approved dictates are sacked from their job, career ruined. Disowned and publicly discredited by colleagues, so called friends and even obscure family members. Social life ruined. They are also invited to the police station to answer “some questions” they’ve not been arrested of course because they haven’t actually committed a crime (yet) but the police are investigating a “none crime hate incident” your attendance at the police station is voluntary but you’re told if you fail to attend that “could possibly lead to your arrest.”
That in a nutshell is modern Britain. Confused by a political class with a kind of pomposity that is often associated with narcissistic megalomaniacs.
Yes, I think we live in a highly-divided time with all core metrics showing signs of decline or stagnation, both economic and living standards, yet there is still no indication of a united approach towards solving these issues. There needs to be renewed focus on the underlying issues currently facing Britain, and once these are agreed upon, work can be done to resolve them. However, at the moment there is too much time spent debating political nuance, and general point-scoring, with the country’s prosperity now becoming an afterthought.
As an example of a country that has no right to "get it right", look at Switzerland, a land-locked country of limited resources. However it protects its infrastructure, provides utility over profit for public services in the widest sense and makes cost-effective long-term investment decisions. Much of this is down to a strong, federal, constitution and a passion for local democracy. And yet it a business-friendly and wealthy person friendly country at the same time as one that provides excellent public services. The Scandinavian countries get a lot right too, perhaps only Sweden losing it's way too.
We don't need untried policies, we just need to learn from those who do it better. Unfortunately we are hostage to the rabble-rousers on the right with their simplistic analyses, and by a political establishment - particularly within the Tory Party - who don't have the courage or capability to confront the doom-mongerers and Little Englanders.
I definitely think we need to look at other examples of where countries are really doing something right for their people, and try to emulate this as closely as possible. As it stands, Britain is trying to do too many things at once, it wants to both pay for past sins, and also lead the world in new areas. Instead the focus should be on working in the best interest of the current population, and that may require a lot more introspection.
There are a couple of pieces of jigsaw pieces that didn't exist until very recently that we could use as part of a solution to moving forwards. One is Rolls Royces SMR. Three of them could power Kent and for cost would be about £6.6bn and take 5-7 years to deploy. Considering Kent produces about £825bn for the exchequer each year if they could be allowed to hypothocate the money and run it as a local energy not for profit you would see new jobs and slashed bills while placating the net zero people at the same time. This piece of the jigsaw needs using immediately. Eds £22bn, the £18bn Chagos deal and other random money UK gov is spaffing up the wall could get 20 SMRs online all over the country. Wales could be making low carbon steel in 5 years time in Port Talbot (more on my substack). Another jigsaw piece is the rare earth minerals in Wales and Cornwall. Again a piece that must not be ignored. With cheap power we could extract it competently, process it and export it, or better yet invest in fabrication. This helps break the lock China has on minerals and makes it strategically important (I will be writing an article about this next week or the week after). Next up are our social issues, it's clear the majority of people are finding the immigration and crime situation intolerable. Either it's fixed or the people will fix it (something that will be violent and bloody and put us back 20 years). We absolutely have to stop the twisting of the law so that in becomes profoundly in equitable. I think the reality is that we need to leave the ECHR, ICC, and various treaties, bring back the death penalty for ideologically driven gang rape and pedofilia, and implement a Japanese style visa system while, largely, removing benefits from out of work immigrants (along with their visas after 3 months). I would also be blocking the commoditisation of the residential housing market by the likes of Blackrock (see my version of a US bill to do just that in the states). Combining all of this, is, I think a way to assemble a new future for the country that would give people hope again and address the terrible inequity that the native British are faced with currently.
Yes I think the ironic beauty of where we find ourselves currently, is that we can borrow the best policies and approaches from other countries, and implement these in a targeted manner in order to bring about the most prosperous version of 21st century Britain. We need to avoid trying to emulate the past, or become distracted by global objectives, and instead focus on rebuilding our infrastructure, setting trade policies that benefit our population, and grow only those industries that we truly have the potential to lead the world in.
I couldn’t agree more.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in my family and social circles that can see the slide of our once impressive nation into oblivion and worst of all obscurity. We live in a society ruled by a political class who (for the most part) hold its voters with mind bending contempt. Those who hold those unfortunate things called opinions are vilified and those who hold opinions that go against the accepted, politically correct, government approved dictates are sacked from their job, career ruined. Disowned and publicly discredited by colleagues, so called friends and even obscure family members. Social life ruined. They are also invited to the police station to answer “some questions” they’ve not been arrested of course because they haven’t actually committed a crime (yet) but the police are investigating a “none crime hate incident” your attendance at the police station is voluntary but you’re told if you fail to attend that “could possibly lead to your arrest.”
That in a nutshell is modern Britain. Confused by a political class with a kind of pomposity that is often associated with narcissistic megalomaniacs.
D
Yes, I think we live in a highly-divided time with all core metrics showing signs of decline or stagnation, both economic and living standards, yet there is still no indication of a united approach towards solving these issues. There needs to be renewed focus on the underlying issues currently facing Britain, and once these are agreed upon, work can be done to resolve them. However, at the moment there is too much time spent debating political nuance, and general point-scoring, with the country’s prosperity now becoming an afterthought.
Pretty hard hitting, unfortunately very few people like facing up to the truth preferring an ostrich like approach.
As an example of a country that has no right to "get it right", look at Switzerland, a land-locked country of limited resources. However it protects its infrastructure, provides utility over profit for public services in the widest sense and makes cost-effective long-term investment decisions. Much of this is down to a strong, federal, constitution and a passion for local democracy. And yet it a business-friendly and wealthy person friendly country at the same time as one that provides excellent public services. The Scandinavian countries get a lot right too, perhaps only Sweden losing it's way too.
We don't need untried policies, we just need to learn from those who do it better. Unfortunately we are hostage to the rabble-rousers on the right with their simplistic analyses, and by a political establishment - particularly within the Tory Party - who don't have the courage or capability to confront the doom-mongerers and Little Englanders.
I definitely think we need to look at other examples of where countries are really doing something right for their people, and try to emulate this as closely as possible. As it stands, Britain is trying to do too many things at once, it wants to both pay for past sins, and also lead the world in new areas. Instead the focus should be on working in the best interest of the current population, and that may require a lot more introspection.
Excuse the typos I replied via my phone 😅
There are a couple of pieces of jigsaw pieces that didn't exist until very recently that we could use as part of a solution to moving forwards. One is Rolls Royces SMR. Three of them could power Kent and for cost would be about £6.6bn and take 5-7 years to deploy. Considering Kent produces about £825bn for the exchequer each year if they could be allowed to hypothocate the money and run it as a local energy not for profit you would see new jobs and slashed bills while placating the net zero people at the same time. This piece of the jigsaw needs using immediately. Eds £22bn, the £18bn Chagos deal and other random money UK gov is spaffing up the wall could get 20 SMRs online all over the country. Wales could be making low carbon steel in 5 years time in Port Talbot (more on my substack). Another jigsaw piece is the rare earth minerals in Wales and Cornwall. Again a piece that must not be ignored. With cheap power we could extract it competently, process it and export it, or better yet invest in fabrication. This helps break the lock China has on minerals and makes it strategically important (I will be writing an article about this next week or the week after). Next up are our social issues, it's clear the majority of people are finding the immigration and crime situation intolerable. Either it's fixed or the people will fix it (something that will be violent and bloody and put us back 20 years). We absolutely have to stop the twisting of the law so that in becomes profoundly in equitable. I think the reality is that we need to leave the ECHR, ICC, and various treaties, bring back the death penalty for ideologically driven gang rape and pedofilia, and implement a Japanese style visa system while, largely, removing benefits from out of work immigrants (along with their visas after 3 months). I would also be blocking the commoditisation of the residential housing market by the likes of Blackrock (see my version of a US bill to do just that in the states). Combining all of this, is, I think a way to assemble a new future for the country that would give people hope again and address the terrible inequity that the native British are faced with currently.
Yes I think the ironic beauty of where we find ourselves currently, is that we can borrow the best policies and approaches from other countries, and implement these in a targeted manner in order to bring about the most prosperous version of 21st century Britain. We need to avoid trying to emulate the past, or become distracted by global objectives, and instead focus on rebuilding our infrastructure, setting trade policies that benefit our population, and grow only those industries that we truly have the potential to lead the world in.